The EU Acts Further in Dispute Over Colombia’s Frozen French Fries Anti-dumping Duties
By asking the WTO to create a compliance panel, the EU has taken additional action to contest Colombia’s tariffs on EU-frozen French fries. The decision was made following the failure of the parties’ talks.
The European Union believes that Colombia’s current actions do not align with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) conclusions and suggestions in the frozen French fries case, which mainly validated the EU’s worries regarding Colombia’s tariffs’ inconsistency with WTO regulations.
“Initially, the EU held consultations with Colombia in line with the WTO framework, but these have failed to resolve the matter. Consequently, by requesting the establishment of a compliance panel, the EU continues to pursue an outcome whereby Colombia will implement the WTO rulings correctly and in full. Once established, a compliance panel will have 90 days to issue a report,” the EU experts reported.
Anti-dumping duties were initially imposed by Colombia on frozen fries from the EU in November 2018, affecting nearly 85% of EU exports, which are valued at EUR19.3m. Following an expiry review, Colombia extended its anti-dumping duties until 30 September 2027, with the possibility of further extensions.
The EU requested WTO consultations with Columbia on the matter (DS591) in November 2019. The WTO panel issued its final report – largely siding with the EU – on 22 August 2022, while the Arbitrators’ Award under the MPIA was issued on 21 December 2022.
Colombia claims to have implemented the findings and recommendations of both through its Ministerial Resolution of 21 November 2023. Through this resolution, Colombia revised its original determination to address adverse findings but concluded that anti-dumping duties should continue with adjusted dumping margins.
However, the EU considers that Colombia artificially created and/or inflated the dumping margins by using WTO-incompatible methodologies and therefore requested compliance consultations with Colombia on 31 May 2024.
